21.11.12

ANDY HICKS: MAXIMUM MAN

147s
are coming thick and fast these days. We’ll probably have the 100th
this season.

But
it remains a holy grail, a fine achievement. And when you consider the many,
many thousands of frames that have been played in the history of the
professional game it is still a rare feat.

If you disagree then ask yourself this: how many have you made?

Andy,
39, is a stalwart of the circuit, a professional for 21 years. Like many
players of the same age he has had his ups and his downs. In the public mind,
the ups tend to be remembered. Players, though, don’t so easily forget the
downs.

Andy
was certainly good enough to have been a top 16 player at his peak in the mid
1990s but in fact stalled at 17th.

This
was indicative of a ‘nearly man’ tag he perhaps unfairly earned, chiefly as a
result of losing in the semi-finals of all three of snooker’s big events: the
World Championship, UK Championship and Masters.

There
are of course many players who have never got this far in any of these
tournaments.

The
left-handed Devonian’s run to the Crucible semi-finals in 1995 included a
controversial second round victory over Willie Thorne, in which one of the
frames was re-racked with WT the best part of 50 points in front.

Thorne
had been fighting back from 6-2 down at the time but the incident certainly
didn’t help his mindset and Hicks beat him. Thorne complained about the call –
by respected referee John Williams – but Hicks suggested “he would have been
better off if he hadn’t been huffin’ and puffin’ around the table.”

Hicks’s
run to the semis had started with victory over Steve Davis and he beat Peter
Ebdon in the quarter-finals before losing to Nigel Bond.

The
following season he reached the semi-finals of the UK Championship – beating Ronnie
O’Sullivan in the quarters – and the Masters. Hicks has lost in three other
ranking tournament semi-finals.

He
was managed for years by Bill Oliver who once drove home all the way from
Tavistock to Aberdeen, a journey of some ten hours, for a match in the Scottish
Open which Hicks lost. The drive home must have felt even longer.

Players
are notorious for putting their trust in managers when it comes to snooker
politics and Hicks was unwise to accompany Oliver to a WPBSA EGM in 1998 which
was supposed to be opened and then closed purely for legal reasons.

It
had been called as an attempt to extend voting rights from the top 32 to top 64
as a way of neutralising the power of CueMasters, run by Ian Doyle, who was
attempting to remove the board.

Doyle
called off his EGM with the agreement that the WPBSA would call off theirs. In
fact, it went ahead and the vote passed 4-0.

But
all this is a long time ago and much water has run under snooker’s bridge
since.

Hicks
won the 1997 Masters qualifier and appeared several more times at the Crucible.
In 2004 he came close to beating O’Sullivan in the second round, holding him to
8-8 going into the final session but losing 13-11.

This
seemed uneventful given the nature of Andy’s first round win over Quinten Hann,
the maverick Australian who had a particular knack of riling his fellow
players.

The
odd word, the odd comment, here and there as the match progressed had rubbed
Hicks up the wrong way, to such an extent that when he won 10-4 he couldn’t
help but say to Hann, “that’s you out of the top 16,” which was certainly
accurate.

Hann,
though, did not like this. “You’re short and bald and always will be and I’ll
fight you out in the street for £50,000 whenever you like,” was his riposte as
the match referee, Lawrie Annandale, had to separate the two players.

Hicks,
who did not deny being short or bald, passed up the chance to lock pugilistic
horns with Hann, which is why Mark King stepped in for the three-round ‘Pot
Whack’ extravaganza at York Hall, which Hann won on points.

Such
frippery is never forgotten but in sport, achievements are what counts.

For
Hicks to still be going when so many others have fallen by the wayside is in
itself an achievement. His 147 proves he can still play to a high standard but
his enemies are time, inconsistency and the standard of play now on the
circuit.

But
today he enjoyed a high point. It may have been made in a bare room but a competitive
147 is always worth celebrating.

It
is said all sporting careers end in disappointment. This may be so, but it
doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the ride because some days are better than others.

4 comments:

I am delighted for Andy. I covered his 'purple patch' in the mid-late 90s for the local paper in Plymouth, travelling to the Crucible, Wembley and Malta for his runs to various semi-finals (earning a reputation as a jinx at the time from Stuart Weir and Phil Yates...). Andy also benefitted from the British Open coming to Plymouth and had some great games in the Pavilions in front of excellent, partisan crowds.As you say, he is a stalwart of the circuit and deserves his rewards from this 147 and no one deserves it more than Andy.

An insightful, accurate and, at times, amusing piece Dave.I remember the Hicks / Hann 'spat'. Slightly less sinister than the Higgins / Taylor feud of yesteryear and thankfully minus the sectarian overtones. Proof though that snooker rivalry can be passionate and explosive.Great to see Andy hit a rich vein of form. Hope it continues well in to the tournament.